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Bible  View  of   Slavery. 


Bible  View  of   Slavery. 


%   Wistanxst, 


DELIVERED   AT  TUB  JEWISH   SYNAGOGUE,  "BNAI  JE8HURUM,     NEW  YORK,  ON 
THE   DAY    OF  THE   NATIONAL   FAST,    JAN.   4,    1861. 


BY     THE 

REV.  M.    J.  RAPHALL,    M.A.,  Ph.  Dr. 

RABBI  PREACHER,    AT    TnE    SYNAGOGUE,    GREENE    STREET,    NEW    YORK. 


NEW     YORK! 

Rudd    &    Carleton,    130    Grand    Street, 

brooks  building,  cor.   of  broadway. 

M  DCCC  I.XI. 


PREFATORY  REMARKS. 


When  the  discourse  which  is  now  placed  before 
the  public  in  pamphlet  form,  Avas  first  delivered,  I 
little  anticipated  that  it  would  attract  and  occupy 
public  attention  in  the  maimer  and  to  the  extent 
which  it  has  done.  The  subject  had  not  been 
chosen  by  myself;  I  was  called  upon  to  expose  a 
pernicious  fallacy.  Under  a  strong  sense  of  duty  I 
did  it ;  not  by  any  reasoning  of  my  own,  but  by  a 
statement  of  facts,  supported  by  the  authority  of 
Scripture.  That  such  a  sober  statement,  and  the 
inferences  to  be  deduced  therefrom,  should  prove 
very  unpalatable  to  men  of  extreme  opinions,  and 
that  they  should  do  their  utmost  to  refute  my  dis- 
course, was  naturally  to  be  expected.  Accord- 
ingly they  have  tried  their  best,  from  newspaper 
paragraphs  of  a  few  lines  up  to  elaborate  articles 
of  many  columns.  With  Avhat  success,  it  is  for 
public  opinion  to  decide.  It  seems,  however,  that 
the  public,  like  myself,  thinks  "  that  facts  are  facts." 
So  long  as  the  one  great  fact  is  not  produced — the 
text  of  Scripture  which  directly  or  indirectly 

DENOUNCES  SLAVEHOLDING  AS  A  SIN SO  long  as  this 

has  not  been  done,  my  statements  remain  incontro- 
vertible. As  that  text  has  not  been  quoted,  which 
it  never  can  be,  since  it  does  not  exist,  all  the 
fiery  attacks  and  declamations  against  me  are  but 
"  leather  and  prunella." 

.  It  is  true  that  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  find 
such  a  text  ;  and  that  Matt.  vii.  12  :  "All  things 
whatsoever  you  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 


Mil  PREFATORY    REMARKS. 

you  even  so  to  them,"  has  been  quoted.  I  might 
answer  that  this  great  precept,  the  practical  explica- 
tion of  the  command,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour like  thyself,"  was  not  only  known  to  the 
ancient  Hebrews  and  even  to  heathen  Greeks,  full 
four  hundred  years  before  the  sermon  on  the  Mount, 
but  likewise  to  all  Christian  nations  upwards  of  1 800 
years  after  that  sermon  ;  but  that  by  ancients  and 
moderns  it  never  was  brought  to  bear  on  slavehold- 
ing  till  within  the  last  (comparatively)  few  years. 
But  I  prefer  to  take  my  answer  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament. The  writer  of  the  "Epistle  to  Philemon'' 
had,  before  his  conversion,  been  the  disciple  of 
Gamaliel,  a  descendant  of  that  Hebrew  sage,  who, 
in  the  Talmud  (tr  Sabbath  fo.  31),  declares  that  the 
rule  "  whatsoever  is  hateful  to  thee  do  not  unto 
others"  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  Law.  After 
his  conversion  he  became  one  of  the  principal  teach- 
ers of  Christianity.  But  though  he  must  have 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  sermon  on  the  Mount 
far  more  fully  and  truly  than  the  writers  in  the 
"  Tribune"  can  do — and  perhaps  for  that  very 
reason,  he  sent  back  the  fugitive  slave,  Onesimus, 
to  his  owner.  Proof  sufficient  on  the  authority  of 
Paul  of  Tarsus,  that  the  text,  Matt.  vii.  12,  has  no 
special  application  to  slaveholding. 

The  long  tirade  in  the  "  Tribune"  of  this  day 
must  go  for  what  it  is  worth.  It  is  before  the  pub- 
lic ;  so  is  my  discourse.  Each  of  the  two  must 
stand  or  fall  on  its  own  merits.  But  I  am  con- 
vinced my  discourse  will  not  fall,  for  it  embodies  "the 
word  of  our  God,  which  standeth  good  for  ever.'' 

M.  J.  R. 

■ 

New  York,  Jan.  15th,  1861. 


Sermon. 


THE 


BIBLE  VIEW  OF  SLAVERY. 


-♦*♦- 


"  The  people  of  Nineveh  believed  in  God,  proclaimed  a  fast. 
and  put  on  sackcloth  from  the  greatest  of  them  even  to  the  least 
of  them.  For  the  matter  reached  the  King  of  Nineveh,  and  he 
arose  from  his  throne,  laid  aside  his  robe,  covered  himself  with 
sackcloth,  and  seated  himself  in  ashes.  And  he  caused  it  to  be 
proclaimed  aud  published  through  Nineveh,  by  decree  of  the 
King  and  his  magnates,  saying:  Let  neither  man  nor  beast,  herd 
nor  flock,  taste  anything ;  led  them  not  feed  nor  drink  any  water. 
But  let  man  and  beast  be  covered  with  sackcloth,  and  cry  with 
all  their  strength  unto  God;  and  let  them  turn  every  individual 
from  his  evil  way  and  from  the  violence  that  is  in  their  hands. 
Who  knoweth  but  God  may  turn  and  relent;  yea,  turn  away 
from  bis  fierce  anger,  that  we  perish  not.  And  God  saw  their 
works,  that  they  turned  from  their  evil  way:  and  God  relented 
of  the  evil  which  he  had  said  that  he  would  inflict  upon  them ; 
and  he  did  it  not." — Jonah  iii.  5-10. 

1.  My  Friends — We  meet  here  this  day  under 
circumstances  not  unlike  those  described  in  my 
text.  Not  many  weeks  ago,  on  the  invitation  of 
the  Governor  of  this  State,  we  joined  in  thanks- 
giving for  the  manifold  mercies  the  Lord  had 


12  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

vouchsafed  to  bestow  upon  us  during  the  past 
year.  But  "coming  events  cast  their  shadows 
before,"  and  our  thanks  were  tinctured  by  the 
foreboding  of  danger  impending  over  our  county. 
The  evil  we  then  dreaded  has  now  come  home  to 
us.  As  the  cry  of  the  prophet,  "  Yet  forty  days 
and  Nineveh  shall  be  overthrown,"  alarmed  that 
people,  so  the  proclamation,  "the  Union  is  dis- 
solved." has  startled  the  inhabitants  of  the  United 
States.  The  President — the  chief  officer  placed 
at  the  helm  to  guide  the  vessel  of  the  common- 
wealth on  its  course — stands  aghast  at  the  signs 
of  the  times.  He  sees  the  black  clouds  gathering 
overhead,  he  hears  the  fierce  howl  of  the  tornado, 
and  the  hoarse  roar  of  the  breakers  all  around 
him.  An  aged  man,  his  great  experience  has 
taught  him  that  "  man's  extremity  is  God's  oppor- 
tunity;" and  conscious  of  his  own  inability  to 
weather  the  storm  without  help  from  on  high,  he 
calls  upon  every  individual  "  to  feel  a  personal 
responsibility  towards  God,"  even  as  the  King 
of  Nineveh  desired  all  persons  "  to  cry  unto  God 
with  all  their  strength  " — and  it  is  in  compliance 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  13 

■with  this  call  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  these 
United  States  that  we,  like  the  many  millions  of 
our  fellow-citizens,  devote  this  day  to  public 
prayer  and  humiliation.  The  President,  more 
polished,  though  less  plain-spoken  than  the  King 
of  Nineveh,  does  not  in  direct  terms  require  every 
one  to  turn  from  his  "  evil  wav,  and  from  the 
violence  that  is  in  their  hands."  But  to  me  these 
two  expressions  seem  in  a  most  signal  manner 
to  describe  our  difficulty,  and  to  apply  to  the 
actual  condition  of  things  both  North  and  South. 
The  "  violence  in  their  hands "  is  the  great 
reproach  we  must  address  to  the  sturdy  fire-eater 
who  in  the  hearing  of  an  indignant  world  pro- 
claims "  Cotton  is  King."  King  indeed,  and  a 
most  righteous  and  merciful  one,  no  doubt,  in 
his  own  conceit ;  since  he  only  tars  and  feathers 
the  wretches  who  fall  in  his  power,  and  whom  he 
suspects  of  not  being  sufficiently  loyal  and  obedi- 
ent to  his  sovereignty.  And  the  "  evil  of  his 
ways ,:  is  the  reproach  we  must  address  to  the 
sleek  rhetorician  who  in  the  hearing  of  a  God- 
fearing world  declares  "  Thought  is  King."    King 


14:  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

.  indeed,  and  a  most  mighty  and  magnanimous 
one — no  doubt — in  his  own  conceit ;  all-powerful 
to  foment  and  augment  the  strife,  though  power- 
less to  allay  it.  Of  all  the  fallacies  coined  in 
the  north,  the  arrogant  assertion  that  "  Thought 
is  King"  is  the  very  last  with  which,  at  this 
present  crisis,  the  patience  of  a  reflecting  people 
should  have  been  abused.  For  in  fact,  the 
material  greatness  of  the  United  States  seems 
to  have  completely  outgrown  the  grasp  of  our 
most  gifted  minds ;  so  that  urgent  as  is  our  need, 
pressing  as  is  the  occasion,  no  man  or  set  of  men 
have  yet  come  forward  capable  of  rising  above 
the  narrow  horizon  of  sectional  influences  and 
prejudices,  and  with  views  enlightened,  just,  and 
beneficent,  to  embrace  the  entirety  of  the  Union 
and  to  secure  its  prosperity  and  preservation. 
No,  my  friends,  "  Cotton"  is  not  King,  and 
"  Human  thought "  is  not  King.  Adonai  Meleck. 
The  Lord  alone  is  King!  Umalkootho  balcol 
mashala,  and  His  royalty  reigneth  over  all.  This 
very  day  of  humiliation  and  of  prayer — what  is  it 
but  the  recognition  of  His  supremacy,  the  confes- 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  15 

sion  of  His  power  and  of  our  own  weakness,  the 
supplications  which  our  distress  addresses  to  His 
mercy  ?  But  in  order  that  these  supplications 
may  be  graciously  received,  that  His  supreme 
protection  may  be  vouchsafed  unto  our  Country, 
it  is  necessary  that  we  should  begin  as  the  people 
of  Nineveh  did ;  we  must  "  believe  in  God." — 
And  when  I  say  "  WE,"  I  do  not  mean  merely  us 
handful  of  peaceable  Union-loving  Hebrews,  but 
I  mean  the  whole  of  the  people  throughout  the 
United  States :  the  President  and  his  Cabinet, 
the  President  elect  and  his  advisers,  the  leaders 
of  public  opinion,  North  and  South.  If  they 
truly  and  honestly  desire  to  save  our  country,  let 
them  believe  in  God  and  in  His  Holy  Word  ;  and 
then  when  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  is  to 
be  set  aside  for  a  higher  Law,  they  will  be  able 
to  appeal  to  the  highest  Law  of  all,  the  revealed 
Law  and  Word  of  God,  which  affords  its  supreme 
sanction  to  the  Constitution.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  my  friends,  that  however  much  of  per- 
sonal ambition,  selfishness,  pride,  and  obstinacy, 
there  may  enter  into  the  present  unhappy  quarrel 


IP)  BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

between  the  two  great  sections  of  the  Common- 
wealth— I  say  it  is  certain  that  the  origin  of  the 
quarrel  itself  is  the  difference  of  opinion  respecting 
slave-holding,  which  the  one  section  denounces 
as  sinful — aye,  as  the  most  heinous  of  sins — while 
the  other  section  upholds  it  as  perfectly  lawful. 
It  is  the  province  of  statesmen  to  examine  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  recognises  the  legality  of  slave- 
holding  ;  and  under  what  circumstances,  if  any, 
it  becomes  a  crime  against  the  law  of  the  land* 
But  the  question  whether  slave-holding  is  a  sin 
before  God,  is  one  that  belongs  to  the  theolosrian. 
I  have  been  requested  by  prominent  citizens  of 
other  denominations,  that  I  should  on  this  day 
examine  the  Bible  view  of  slavery,  as  the  reli- 
gious mind  of  the  country  requires  to  be  enlight- 
ened on  the  subject. 

In  compliance  with  that  request,  and  after 
humbly  praying  that  the  Father  of  Truth  and  of 
Mercy  may  enlighten  my  mind,  and  direct  my 
words  for  good,  I  am  about  to  solicit  your  earnest 
attention,  my  friends,  to  this  serious  subject.    My 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  17 

discourse  will,  I  fear,  take  up  more  of  your  time 
than  I  am  in  the  habit  of  exacting  from  you ; 
but  this  is  a  day  of  penitence,  and  the  having  to 
listen  to  a  long  and  sober  discourse  must  be 
accounted  as  a  penitential  infliction. 

The  subject  of  my  investigation  falls  into  three 
parts  : — 

First,  How  far  back  can  we  trace  the  existence 
of  slavery  ? 

Secondly,  Is  slaveholding  condemned  as  a  sin 
in  sacred  Scripture? 

Thirdly,  What  was  the  condition  of  the  slave 
in  Biblical  times,  and  among  the  Hebrews ;  and 
saying  with  our  Father  Jacob,  "  for  Thy  help, 
I  hope,  O  Lord!"  I  proceed  to  examine  the  ques- 
tion, how  far  back  can  we  trace  the  existence  of 
slavery  ? 

I.  It  is  generally  admitted,  that  slavery  had 
its  origin  in  war,  public  or  private.  The  victor 
having  it  in  his  power  to  take  the  life  of  his  van- 
quished enemy,  prefers  to  let  him  live,  and 
reduces  him  to  bondage.  The  life  he  has  spared, 
the  body  he  might  have  mutilated  or  destroyed, 


18  BIBLE  VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

become  his  absolute  property.  He  may  dispose 
of  it  in  any  way  he  pleases.  Such  was,  and 
through  a  great  part  of  the  world  still  is,  the 
brutal  law  of  force.  When  this  state  of  things 
first  began,  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  decide.  If 
we  consult  Sacred  Scripture,  the  oldest  and  most 
truthful  collection  of  records  now  or  at  any  time 
in  existence,  we  find  the  word  Ngebed  "  slave," 
which  the  English  version  renders  "  servant," 
first  used  by  Noah,  who,  in  Genesis  ix.  25,  curses 
the  descendants  of  his  son  Ham,  by  saying  they 
should  be  Ngebed  Ngabadim,  the  "  meanest  of 
slaves,"  or  as  the  English  version  has  it  "servant 
of  servants."  The  question  naturally  arises  how 
came  Noah  to  use  the  expression  ?  How  came 
he  to  know  anything  of  slavery  ?  There  existed 
not  at  that  time  any  human  being  on  earth  except 
Noah  and  his  family  of  three  sons,  apparently  by 
one  mother,  born  free  and  equal,  with  their  wives 
and  children.  Noah  had  no  slaves.  From  the 
time  that  he  quitted  the  ark  he  could  have 
none.  It  therefore  becomes  evident  that  Noah's 
acquaintance  with  the  word  slave  and  the  nature 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY.  19 

of  slavery  must  date  from  before  the  Flood,  and 
existed  in  his  memory  only  until  the  crime  of 
Ham  called  it  forth.  You  and  I  may  regret  that 
in  his  anger  Noah  should  from  beneath  the  waters 
of  wrath  again  have  fished  up  the  idea  and  prac- 
tice of  slavery  ;  but  that  he  did  so  is  a  fact  which 
rests  on  the  authority  of  Scripture.  I  am  there- 
fore justified  when  tracing  slavery  as  far  back  as 
it  can  be  traced,  I  arrive  at  the  conclusion,  that 
next  to  the  domestic  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  parents  and  children,  the  oldest  relation  of 
society  with  which  we  are  acquainted  is  that  of 
master  and  slave. 

Let  us  for  an  instant  stop  at  this  curse  by 
Noah  with  which  slavery  after  the  Flood  is 
recalled  into  existence.  Among  the  many  pro- 
phecies contained  in  the  Bible  and  having  refer- 
ence to  particular  times,  persons,  and  events, 
there  are  three  singular  predictions  referring  to 
three  distinct  races  or  peoples,  which  seem  to  be 
intended  for  all  times,  and  accordingly  remain  in 
fall  force  to  this  day.  The  first  of  these  is  the 
doom  of  Ham's  descendants,  the  xlfrican  race, 


20  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

pronounced  upwards  of  4,000  years  ago.  The 
second  is  the  character  of  the  descendants  of 
Ishmael,  the  Arabs,  pronounced  nearly  4,000 
years  ago ;  and  the  third  and  last  is  the  promise 
of  continued  and  indestructible  nationality  pro- 
mised to  us,  Israelites,  full  2500  years  ago.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  knowledge  that  a  parti- 
cular prophecy  exists,  helps  to  work  out  its  ful- 
filment, and  I  am  quite  willing  to  allow  that 
with  us,  Israelites,  such  is  the  fact.  The  know- 
ledge we  have  of  God's  gracious  promises  renders 
us  imperishable,  even  though  the  greatest  and  most 
powerful  nations  of  the  olden  time  have  utterly 
perished.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  fanatic 
Arab  of  the  desert  ever  heard  of  the  prophecy 
that  he  is  to  be  a  "  wild  man,  his  hand  against 
every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him." 
(Gen.  xvi.  12.)  But  you  and  I,  and  all  men  of 
ordinary  education,  know  that  this  prediction  at 
all  times  has  been,  and  is  now,  literally  fulfilled, 
and  that  it  has  never  been  interrupted.  Not 
even  when  the  followers  of  Mahomet  rushed 
forth  to  spread  his  doctrines,  the  Koran  in  one 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY.  21 

hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other,  and  when  Arab 
conquest  rendered  the  fairest  portion  of  the  Old- 
World  subject  to  the  empire  of  their  Caliph,  did 
the  descendants  of  Ishmael  renounce  their  charac- 
teristics. Even  the  boasted  civilization  of  the 
present  century,  and  frequent  intercourse  with 
Western  travellers,  still  leave  the  Arab  a  wild 
man,  "  his  hand  against  everybody,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him,"  a  most  convincing  and 
durable  proof  that  the  Word  of  God  is  true, 
and  that  the  prophecies  of  the  Bible  were  dictated 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  Most  High.  But  though,  in 
the  case  of  the  Arab,  it  is  barely  possible  that 
he  may  be  acquainted  with  the  prediction  made 
to  Hagar,  yet  we  may  be  sure  that  the  fetish- 
serving  benighted  African  has  no  knowledge  of 
Noah's  prediction;  which,  however,  is  nowhere 
more  fully  or  more  atrociously  carried  out  than 
in  the  native  home  of  the  African.  Witness  the 
horrid  fact,  that  the  King  of  Dahomy  is,  at  this 
very  time,  filling  a  large  and  deep  trench  with 
human  blood,  sufficient  to  float  a  good-sized 
boat ;  that  the  victims  are  innocent  men,  murdered 


22  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

to  satisfy  some  freak  of  what  he  calls  his  religion ; 
.and  that  this  monstrous  and  most  fiendish  act  has 
met  with  no  opposition,  either  from  the  pious 
indignation  of  Great  Britain,  or  from  the  zealous 
humanity  of  our  country. 

Now  I  am  well  aware  that  the  Biblical  critics 
called  nationalists,  who  deny  the  possibility  of 
prophecy,  have  taken  upon  themselves  to  assert, 
that  the  prediction  of  which  I  have  spoken  was 
never  uttered  by  Noah,  but  was  made  up  many 
centuries  after  him  by  the  Hebrew  writer  of  the 
Bible,  in  order  to  smoothe  over  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  Canaanites,  whose  land  was  conquered 
by  the  Israelites.  With  superhuman  knowledge 
like  that  of  the  Rationalists,  who  claim  to  sit  in 
judgment  on  the  Word  of  God,  I  do  not  think  it 
worth  while  to  argue.  But  I  would  ask  you 
how  is  it  that  a  prediction,  manufactured  for  a 
purpose — a  fraud  in  short,  and  that  a  most  base 
and  unholy  one,  should  nevertheless  continue  in 
force,  and  be  carried  out  during  four,  or  three,  or 
even  two  thousand  years;  for  a  thousand  years 
more  or  less  can  here  make  no  difference.     Noah, 


BIBLE   VIEW    OF   SLAVERY.  23 

on  the  occasion  in  question,  bestows  on  his  son 
Shem  a  spiritual  blessing:  "Blessed  be  the  Lord, 
the  God  of  Shem,"  and  to  this  day  it  remains  a 
fact  which  cannot  be  denied,  that  whatever  know- 
ledge of  God  and  of  religious  truth  is  possessed 
by  the  human  race,  has  been  promulgated  by  the 
descendants  of  Shem.  Noah  bestows  on  his  son 
Japheth  a  blessing,  chiefly  temporal,  but  par- 
taking also  of  spiritual  good.  "  May  God  enlarge 
Japheth,  and  may  he  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,1' 
and  to  this  day  it  remains  a  fact  which  cannot  be 
denied,  that  the  descendants  of  Japheth  (Euro- 
peans and  their  offspring)  have  been  enlarged 
so  that  they  possess  dominion  in  every  part  of 
the  earth ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  share  in 
that  knowledge  of  religious  truth  which  the 
descendants  of  Shem  were  the  first  to  promul- 
gate. Noah  did  not  bestow  any  blessing  on  his 
son  Ham,  bat  uttered  a  bitter  curse  against  his 
descendants,  and  to  this  day  it  remains  a  fact 
which  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  in  his  own  native 
home,  and  generally  throughout  the  world,  the 
unfortunate  negro  is  indeed  the  meanest  of  slaves. 


24  BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

Much,  has  been  said  respecting  the  inferiority  of 
his  intellectual  powers,  and  that  no  man  of  his 
race  has  ever  inscribed  his  name  on  the  Pantheon 
of  human  excellence,  either  mental  or  moral. 
But  this  is  a  subject  I  will  not  discuss.  I  do 
not  attempt  to  build  up  a  theory,  nor  yet  to 
defend  the  moral  government  of  Providence.  I 
state  facts;  and  having  done  so,  I  remind  you 
that  our  own  fathers  were  slaves  in  Egypt,  and 
afflicted  four  hundred  years ;  and  then  I  bid  you 
reflect  on  the  words  of  inspired  Isaiah  (lv.  8.), 
"  My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither 
are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord." 

II.  Having  thus,  on  the  authority  of  the  sacred 
Scripture,  traced  slavery  back  to  the  remotest 
period,  I  next  request  your  attention  to  the  ques- 
tion, "Is  slaveholding  condemned  as  a  sin  in 
sacred  Scripture  ?"  How  this  question  can  at  all 
arise  in  the  mind  of  any  man  that  has  received  a 
religious  education,  and  is  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  Bible,  is  a  phenomenon  I  cannot 
explain  to  myself,  and  which  fifty  years  ago  no 
man  dreamed  of.     But  we  live  in  times  when  we 


BIBLE  VIEW  OF  SLAVERY.  25 

must  not  be  surprised  at  anything.     Last  Sunday 
an  eminent  preacher  is  reported  to  have  declared 
from  the  pulpit,  "  That  the  Old  Testament  require- 
ments served  their  purpose  during  the  physical 
and  social  development  of  mankind,   and  were 
rendered  no  longer  necessary  now  when  we  were 
to  be  guided  by  the  superior  doctrines  of  the  New 
in  the  moral  instruction   of  the  race."     I   had 
always  thought  that  in  the  "  moral  instruction  of 
the  race,"  the  requirements  of  Jewish  Scriptures 
and  Christian  Scriptures  were  identically  the  same ; 
that  to  abstain  from  murder,  theft,  adultery,  that 
"to  do  justice,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  hum- 
bly  with   God,"   were    "  requirements"   equally 
imperative  in  the  one  course  of  instruction  as  in 
the  other.     But  it  appears  I  was  mistaken.     "We 
have  altered  all  that  now,"  says  this  eminent  divine, 
in  happy  imitation  of  Molicre's  physician,  whose 
new  theory  removed  the  heart  from  the  left  side  of 
the  human  body  to  the  right.     But  when  I  remem- 
ber that  the  "now"  refers  to  a  period  of  which  you 
all,  though  no  very  aged  men,  witnessed  the  rise ; 
when,  moreover,  I  remember  that  the  "we"  the 


26  BIBLE  VIEW   OF   SLAVEKY. 

reverend  preacher  speaks  of,  is  limited  to  a  few  im- 
pulsive declaimers,  gifted  with  great  zeal,  but  little 
knowledge ;  more  eloquent  than  learned ;  better 
able  to  excite  our  passions  than  to  satisfy  our 
reason ;  and  when,  lastly,  I  remember  the  scorn 
with  which  sacred  Scripture  (Deut.  xxxii.  18) 
speaks  of  "  newfangled  notions,  lately  sprung  up, 
which  vour  fathers  esteemed  not;"  when  I  con- 
sider  all  this,  I  think  you  and  I  had  rather  continue 
to  talce  our  "requirements  for  moral  instruction" 
from  Moses  and  the  Prophets  than  from  the  elo- 
quent preacher  of  Brooklyn.  But  as  that  reve- 
rend gentleman  takes  a  lead  among  those  who  most 
loudly  and  most  vehemently  denounce  slavehold- 
ing  as  a  sin,  I  wished  to  convince  myself  whether 
he  had  any  Scripture  warranty  for  so  doing ;  and 
whether  such  denunciation  was  one  of  those 
"  requirements  for  moral  instruction"  advanced 
by  the  New  Testament.  I  have  accordingly 
examined  the  various  books  of  Christian  Scrip- 
ture, and  find  that  they  afford  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman and  his  compeers  no  authority  whatever  for 
his  and  their  declamations.     The  New  Testament 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  27 

nowhere,  directly  or  indirectly,  condemns  slave- 
holding,  which,  indeed,  is  proved  by  the  universal 
practice  of  all  Christian  nations  during  many  cen- 
turies. Receiving  slavery  as  one  of  the  condi- 
tions of  society,  the  New  Testament  nowhere 
interferes  with  or  contradicts  the  slave  code  of 
Moses ;  it  even  preserves  a  letter  written  by  one 
of  the  most  eminent  Christian  teachers  to  a  slave- 
owner on  sending  back  to  him  his  runaway  slave. 
And  when  we  next  refer  to  the  history  and 
"  requirements"  of  our  own  sacred  Scriptures,  we 
find  that  on  the  most  solemn  occasion  therein 
recorded,  when  Grod  gave  the  Ten  Command- 
ments on  Mount  Sinai — 

There  where  His  finger  scorched,  the  tablet  shone; 
There  where  His  shadow  on  his  people  shone 
His  glory,  shrouded  in  its  garb  of  fire, 
Himself  no  eye  might  see  and  not  expire. 

Even  on  that  most  solemn  and  most  holy  occa- 
sion, slaveholding  is  not  only  recognised  and 
sanctioned  as  an  integral  part  of  the  social  struc- 
ture, when  it  is  commanded  that  the  Sabbath  of 


28  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

the  Lord  is  to  bring  rest  to  Ngabdecna  ve  Ama- 
thechcij  "  Thy  male  slave  and  thy  female  slave" 
(Exod.  xx.  10  ;  Deut.  v.  14).  But  the  property 
in  slaves  is  placed  under  the  same  protection  as 
any  other  species  of  lawful  property,  when  it  is 
said,  u  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house, 
or  his  field,  or  his  male  slave,  or  his  female  slave, 
or  his  ox,  or  his  ass,  or  au^ht  that  belongeth  to 

7  7  O  O 

thy  neighbor"  (Ibid.  xx.  17;  v.  21).  That  the 
male  slave  and  female  slave  here  spoken  of  do 
not  designate  the  Hebrew  bondman,  but  the 
heathen  slave,  I  shall  presently  show  you.  That 
the  Ten  Commandments  are  the  word  of  God,  and 
as  such,  of  the  very  highest  authority,  is  acknow- 
ledged by  Christians  as  well  as  by  Jews.  I  would 
therefore  ask  the  reverend  gentleman  of  Brook- 
lyn and  his  compeers — How  dare  you,  in  the 
face  of  the  sanction  and  protection  afforded  to 
slave  property  in  the  Ten  Commandments — how 
dare  you  denounce  slaveholding  as  a  sin?  When 
you  remember  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Job 
— the  men  with  whom  the  Almighty  conversed, 
with  whose  names  he  emphatically  connects  his 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  29 

own  most  holv  name,  and  to  whom  He  vouchsafed 
to  give  the  character  of  "  perfect,  upright,  fearing 
God  and  eschewing  evil"  (Job  i.  8) — that  all  these 
men  were  slaveholders,  does  it  not  strike  you  that 
you  are  guilty  of  something  very  little  short  of 
blasphemy  ?  And  if  you  answer  me,  "  Oh,  in 
their  time  slaveholcling  was  lawful,  but  now  it  has 
become  a  sin,"  I  in  my  turn  ask  you,  "  When 
and  by  what  authority  you  draw  the  line  ?"  Tell 
us  the  precise  time  when  slaveholding  ceased  to 
be  permitted,  and  became  sinful  ?"  When  we 
remember  the  mischief  which  this  inventing  a  new 
sin,  not  known  to  the  Bible,  is  causing ;  how  it 
has  exasperated  the  feelings  of  the  South,  and 
alarmed  the  conscience  of  the  North,  to  a  desrree 
that  men  who  should  be  brothers  are  on  the  point 
of  embruing  their  hands  in  each  other's  blood, 
are  we  not  entitled  to  ask  the  reverend  preacher  of 
Brooklyn,  u  What  right  have  you  to  insult  and 
exasperate  thousands  of  God-fearing,  law-abiding 
citizens,  whose  moral  worth  and  patriotism,  whose 
purity  of  conscience  and  of  life,  are  fully  equal 
to  your  own  ?     What  right  have  you  to  place 


30  BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

yonder  grey-headed  philanthropist  on  a  level  with 
a  murderer,  or  yonder  virtuous  mother  of  a  family 
on  a  line  with  an  adulteress,  or  yonder  honorable 
and  honest  man  in  one  rank  with  a  thief,  and  all 
this  solely  because  they  exercise  a  right  which 
}rour  own  fathers  and  progenitors,  during  many 
generations,  held  and  exercised  without  reproach 
or  compunction.  You  profess  to  frame  your 
"  moral  instruction  of  the  race"  according  to  the 
"  requirements"  of  the  New  Testament — but  tell 
us  where  and  by  whom  it  was  said,  "  Whosoever 
shall  say  to  'his  neighbor,  Baca  (worthless  sinner), 
shall  be  in  danger  of  the  council ;  but  whosoever 
shall  say,  thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judg- 
ment." My  friends,  I  find,  and  I  am  sorry  to 
find,  that  I  am  delivering  a  pro-slavery  discourse. 
I  am  no  friend  to  slavery  in  the  abstract,  and 
still  less  friendly  to  the  practical  working  of  slav- 
ery. But  I  stand  here  as  .a  teacher  in  Israel  ; 
not  to  place  before  you  my  own  feelings  and 
opinions,  but  to  propound  to  you  the  word  of 
God,  the  Bible  view  of  slavery.  With  a  due 
sense  of  my  responsibility,  I  must  state  to  you 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  31 

the  truth   and  nothing  but  the  truth,  however 
unpalatable  or  unpopular  that  truth  may  be. 

III.  It  remains  for  me  now  to  examine  what 
was  the  condition  of  the  slave  in  Biblical  times 
and  among  the  Hebrews.  And  here  at  once  we 
must  distinguish  between  the  Hebrew  bondman 
and  the  heathen  slave.  The  former  could  onlv  be 
reduced  to  bondage  from  two  causes.  If  he  had 
committed  theft  and  had  not  wherewithal  to  make 
full  restitution,  he  was  "  sold  for  his  theft.'' 
(Exod.  xxii.  3.)  Or  if  he  became  so  miserably 
poor  that  he  could  not  sustain  life  except  by 
begging,  he  had  permission  to  "  sell"  or  bind  him- 
self in  servitude.  (Levit.  xxv.  39  et  seq.)  But 
in  either  case  his  servitude  was  limited  in  duration 
and  character.  "  Six  years  shall  he  serve,  and  in 
the  seventh  he  shall  go  out  free  for  nothing'' 
(Exod.  xxi.  2).  And  if  even  the  bondman  pre- 
ferred bondage  to  freedom,  he  could  not,  under 
any  circumstances,  be  held  to  servitude  longer 
than  the  jubilee  then  next  coming.  At  that 
period  the  estate  which  had  originally  belonged 
to  his  father,  or  remoter  ancestor,  reverted  to  his 


32  BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 


0 


possession,  so  that  lie  went  forth  at  once  a  freeman 
and  a  landed  proprietor.  As  his  privilege  of 
Hebrew  citizen  was  thus  only  suspended,  and  the 
law,  in  permitting  him  to  be  sold,  contemplated 
his  restoration  to  his  full  rights,  it  took  care  that 
during  his  servitude  his  mind  should  not  be 
crushed  to  the  abject  and  cringing  condition  of  a 
slave.  "  Ye  shall  not  rule  over  one  another  with 
rigor,"  is  the  provision  of  the  law.  (Lev.  xxv. 
46.)  Thus  he  is  fenced  round  with  protection 
against  any  abuse  of  power  on  the  part  of  his 
employer ;  and  tradition  so  strictly  interpreted  the 
letter  of  the  law  in  his  favor,  that  it  was  a  com- 
mon saying  of  Biblical  times  and  homes,  which 
Maimonides  has  preserved  to  us,  that  "  he  who 
buys  an  Hebrew  bondman  gets  himself  a  master." 
Though  in  servitude,  this  Hebrew  was  in  nowise 
exempt  from  his  religious  duties.  Therefore  it  is 
not  for  him  or  his  that  the  Ten  Commandments 
stipulated  for  rest  on  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  ; 
for  his  employer  could  not  compel  him  to  work 
on  that  day ;  and  if  he  did  work  of  his  own 
accord,  he  became  guilty  of  death,  like  any  other 


BIBLE  VIEW   OF  SLAVERY.  33 

Sabbath-breaker.  Neither  does  the  prohibition, 
thou  shalt  not  covet  the  property  of  thy  neigh- 
bor," apply  to  him,  for  he  was  not  the  property  of 
his  employer.  In  fact,  between  the  Hebrew 
bondman  and  the  Southern  slave  there  is  no 
point  of  resemblance.  There  were,  however, 
slaves  among  the  Hebrews,  whose  general  condi- 
tion was  analogous  to  that  of  their  Southern  fellow 
sufferers.  That  was  the  heathen  slave,  who  was 
to  be  bought  "  from  the  heathens  that  were  round 
about  the  land  of  Israel,  or  from  the  heathen 
strangers  that  sojourned  in  the  land ;  they  should 
be  a  possession,  to  be  bequeathed  as  an  inheritance 
to  the  owner's  children,  after  his  death,  for  ever" 
(Levit.  xxv.  44r-46.)  Over  these  heathen  slaves 
the  owner's  property  was  absolute;  he  could  put 
them  to  hard  labor,  to  the  utmost  extent  of  their 
physical  strength ;  he  could  inflict  on  them  any 
degree  of  chastisement  short  of  injury  to  life 
and  limb.  If  his  heathen  slave  ran  away  or 
strayed  from  home,  every  Israelite  was  bound 
to  bring  or  send  him  back,  as  he  would  have 
to  do  with  any  other  portion  of  his   neighbor's 


34  BTBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY. 

property  that  had  been  lost  or  strayed.     (Deut. 
xxii.  3.) 

Now,  you  may,  perhaps,  ask  me  how  I  can 
reconcile  this  statement  with  the  text  of  Scripture 
so  frequently  quoted  against  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  "  Thou  shalt  not  surrender  unto  his  master 
the  slave  who  has  escaped  from  his  master  unto 
thee"  (Deut.  xxiii.  16).  I  answer  you  that, 
according  to  all  legists,  this  text  applies  to  a 
heathen  slave,  who,  from  any  foreign  country 
escapes  from  his  master,  even  though  that  master 
be  an  Hebrew,  residing  out  of  the  land  of  Israel. 
Such  a  slave — but  such  a  slave  only — is  to  find  a 
permanent  asylum  in  any  part  of  the  country  he 
may  choose.  This  interpretation  is  fully  borne 
out  by  the  words  of  the  precept.  The  pronoun 
"thou,"  is  not  here  used  in  the  same  sense  as  in 
the  Ten  Commandments.  There  it  designates 
every  soul  in  Israel  individually;  since  every 
one  has  it  in  his  power,  and  is  in  duty  bound  to 
obey  the  commandments.  But  as  the  security 
and  protection  to  be  bestowed  on  the  runaway 
slaves  are  beyond  the  power  of  any  individual,  and 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY.  35 

require  the  consent  and  concurrence  of  the  whole 
community,  the  pronoun  "thou"  here  means  the 
whole  of  the  people,  and  not  one  portion  in  oppo- 
sition to  any  other  portion  of  the  people.  And 
as  the  expression  remains  the  same  throughout 
the  precept,  "With  thee  he  shall  dwell,  even 
among  ye,  in  the  place  he  shall  choose  in  one  of 
thy  gates  where  it  liketh  him  best,"  it  plainly 
shows  that  the  whole  of  the  land  was  open  to 
him,  and  the  whole  of  the  people  were  to  protect 
the  fugitive,  which  could  not  have  been  carried 
out  if  it  had  applied  to  the  slave  who  escaped 
from  one  tribe  into  the  territory  of  another.  Had 
the  precept  been  expounded  in  any  other  than  its 
strictly  literal  sense,  it  would  have  caused  great 
confusion,  since  it  would  have  nullified  two  other 
precepts  of  God's  law ;  that  which  directs  that 
"slaves,  like  lands  and  houses,  were  to  be  inhe- 
rited for  ever,"  and  that  which  commands  "pro- 
perty, lost  or  strayed,  to  be  restored  to  the 
owner."  Any  other  interpretation  would,  more- 
over, have  caused  heartburning  and  strife  between 
the  tribes,  for  men    were  as  tenacious   of  their 


36  BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

rights  and  property  in  those  days  as  they  are 
now.  But  no  second  opinion  was  ever  enter- 
tained ;  the  slave  who  ran  away  from  Dan  to 
Beersheba  had  to  be  given  up,  even  as  the  run- 
away from  South  Carolina  has  to  be  given  up  by 
Massachusetts ;  whilst  the  runaway  from  Edom, 
or  from  Syria,  found  an  asylum  in  the  land  of 
Israel,  as  the  runaway  slave  from  Cuba  or  Brazil 
would  find  in  New  York.  Accordingly,  Shimei 
reclaimed  and  recovered  his  runaway  slaves  from 
Achish,  king  of  Gath,  at  that  time  a  vassal  of 
Israel  (Kings  ii.  39,  40).  And  Saul  of  Tarsus 
sent  back  the  runaway  slave,  Onesimus,  unto  his 
owner  Philemon.  But  to  surrender  to  a  ruthless, 
lawless  heathen,  the  wretched  slave  who  had 
escaped  from  his  cruelty,  would  have  been  to 
give  up  the  fugitive  to  certain  death,  or  at  least 
to  tortures  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  God's  law, 
the  tender  care  of  which  protected  the  bird  in  its 
nest,  the  beast  at  the  plough,  and  the  slave  in  his 
degradation.  Accordingly,  the  ex-tradition  was 
not  permitted  in  Palestine  any  more  than  it  is  in 
Canada.     While  thus  the  owner  possessed  full 


BIBLE  VIEW   OF  SLAVEKY.  37 

right  over  and  security  for  his  property,  the  exer- 
cise of  that  power  was  confined  within  certain 
limits  which  he  could  not  outstep.  His  female 
slave  was  not  to  be  the  tool  or  castaway  toy  of 
his  sensuality,  nor  could  he  sell  her,  but  was 
bound  to  "let  her  go  free,"  "because  he  had 
humbled  her"  (Deut.  xxi.  14).  His  male  slave 
was  protected  against  excessive  punishment ;  for 
if  the  master  in  any  way  mutilated  his  slave, 
even  to  knock  a  single  tooth  out  of  his  head,  the 
slave  became  free  (Exod.  xxi.  26,  27).  And 
while  thus  two  of  the  worst  passions  of  human 
nature,  lust  and  cruelty,  were  kept  under  due 
restraint,  the  third  bad  passion,  cupidity,  was  not 
permitted  free  scope  ;  for  the  law  of  God  secured 
to  the  slave  his  Sabbaths  and  days  of  rest ;  while 
public  opinion,  which  in  a  country  so  densely 
peopled  as  Palestine  must  have  been  all-powerful, 
would  not  allow  any  slave-owner  to  impose 
heavier  tasks  on  his  slaves,  or  to  feed  them  worse 
than  his  neighbors  did.  This,  indeed,  is  the  great 
distinction  which  the  Bible  view  of  slavery 
derives  from  its  divine  source.     The   slave  is  a 


38  BIBLE  VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

person  in  whom  the  dignity  of  human  nature  is 
to  be  respected ;  he  has  rights.  Whereas,  the 
heathen  view  of  slavery  which  prevailed  at  Kome, 
and  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  adopted  in  the 
South,  reduces  the  slave  to  a  thing ,  and  a  thing 
can  have  no  rights.  The  result  to  which  the 
Bible  view  of  slavery  leads  us,  is — 1st.  That 
slavery  has  existed  since  the  earliest  time ;  2d. 
That  slaveholding  is  no  sin,  and  that  slave  pro- 
perty is  expressly  placed  under  the  protection  of 
the  Ten  Commandments ;  3d.  That  the  slave  is  a 
person,  and  has  rights  not  conflicting  with  the 
lawful  exercise  of  the  rights  of  his  owner.  If  our 
Northern  fellow-citizens,  content  with  following 
the  word  of  God,  would  not  insist  on  being 
"righteous  overmuch,"  or  denouncing  "sin" 
which  the  Bible  knows  not,  but  which  is  plainly 
taught  by  the  precepts  of  men — they  would 
entertain  more  equity  and  less  ill  feeling 
towards  their  Southern  brethren.  And  if  our 
Southern  fellow-citizens  would  adopt  the  Bible 
view  of  slavery,  and  discard  that  heathen  slave 
code,  which  permits  a  few  bad  men  to  indulge  in 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  39 

an  abuse  of  power  that  throws  a  stigma  and  dis- 
grace on  the  whole  body  of  slaveholders — if  both 
North  and  South  would  do  what  is  right,  then 
"  God  would  see  their  works  and  that  they  turned 
from  the  evil  of  their  ways ;"  and  in  their  case,  as 
in  that  of  the  people  of  Nineveh,  would  mercifully 
avert  the  impending  evil,  for  with  Him  alone  is 
the  power  to  do  so.     Therefore  let  us  pray. 

Almighty  and  merciful  God,  we  approach  Thee 
this  day,  our  hearts  heavy  with  the  weight  of  our 
sins,  our  looks  downcast  under  the  sense  of  our 
ingratitude,  national  and  individual.  Thou,  Father 
all-bounteous,  hast  in  Thine  abundant  goodness 
plentifully  bestowed  upon  us  every  good  and 
every  blessing,  spiritual,  mental,  temporal,  that  in 
the  present  state  of  the  world  men  can  desire. 
But  we  have  perverted  and  abused  Thy  gifts ;  in 
our  arrogance  and  selfishness  we  have  contrived 
to  extract  poison  from  Thy  most  precious  boons ; 
the  spiritual  have  degenerated  into  unloving  self- 
righteousness;  the  mental  have  rendered  us  vain- 
glorious and  conceited;  and  the  temporal  have 
degraded  us  into  Mammon- worshipping  slaves  of 


40  BIBLE   VIEW   OF  SLAVERY. 

avarice.  Intoxicated  with  our  prosperity,  we 
have  forgotten  Thee ;  drunken  with  pride,  we  reel 
on  towards  the  precipice  of  disunion  and  ruin. 
What  hand  can  stay  us  if  it  be  not  Thine,  0  God  ! 
Thou  who  art  long-suffering  as  Thou  art  almighty, 
to  Thee  we  turn  in  the  hour  of  our  utmost  need. 
Hear  us,  Father,  for  on  Thee  our  hopes  are  fixed. 
Help  us,  Father,  for  thou  alone  canst  do  it. 
Punish  us  not  according  to  our  arrogance ;  afflict 
us  not  according  to  our  deserts.  Kemove  from 
our  breasts  the  heart  of  stone,  and  from  our 
minds  the  obstinacy  of  self-willed  pride.  Extend 
thy  grace  unto  us,  that  we  may  acknowledge  our 
own  transgressions.  Open  our  eyes  that  we  may 
behold  and  renounce  the  wrong  we  inflict  on  our 
neighbors.  God  of  justice  and  of  mercy,  suffer 
not  despots  to  rejoice  at  our  dissensions,  nor 
tyrants  to  triumph  over  our  fall.  Let  them  not 
point  at  us  the  finger  of  scorn,  or  sa}r,  "Look 
there  at  the  fruits  of  freedom  and  self-government 
— of  equal  rights  and  popular  sovereignty — strife 
without  any  real  cause — destruction  without  any 
sufficient  motive."     Oh,  let  not  them  who  trust  in 


BIBLE   VIEW   OF   SLAVERY.  41 

Thee  be  put  to  shame,  or  those  who  seek  Thee  be 
disgraced.  Almighty  God,  extend  thy  gracious 
protection  to  the  United  States.  Pour  out  over 
the  citizens  thereof,  and  those  whom  they  have 
elected  to  be  their  rulers,  the  spirit  of  grace  and 
of  supplication,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  brotherly 
love,  so  that  henceforth,  even  as  hitherto,  they 
may  know  that  union  is  strength,  and  that  it  is 
good  and  plegsant  for  brethren  to  dwell  together 
in  unity.  And  above  all  things,  Lord  merciful 
and  gracious,  avert  the  calamity  of  civil  war  from 
our  midst.  If  in  Thy  supreme  wisdom  Thou 
hast  decreed  that  this  vast  commonwealth,  which 
has  risen  under  Thy  protection,  and  prospered 
under  Thy  blessing,  shall  now  be  separated,  then 
we  beseech  Thee  let  that  separation  be  peaceable ; 
that  no  human  blood  may  be  shed,  but  that  the 
canopy  of  Thy  peace  may  still  remain  spread 
over  all  the  land.  May  we  address  our  prayers  to 
Thee,  0  Lord,  at  an  acceptable  time ;  mayest 
Thou,  0  God,  in  Thv  abundant  mercv,  answer  us 
with  the  truth  of  Thy  salvation.     Amen. 

THE   EXD. 


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Dr.  Vinton,  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 

Dr.  William  Adams,  Xew  York, 

Dr.  Dabney,  of  Virginia. 

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DR.   CUMMING'S  NEW  WORKS. 
THE     GREAT     TRIBULATION ; 

OR, 

Things  Coming  on  the  Earth. 

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Redemption  Draweth  Nigh. 

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